Man in the Box – Evil Within: The Executioner DLC Review

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><i>Read Patrick&&num;8217&semi;s reviews of the other two Evil Within DLC&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;worst-job-ever-evil-within-assignment-review&sol;">The Assignment<&sol;a>&comma; and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;worst-job-ever-the-evil-within-consequence-review&sol;">The Consequence<&sol;a><&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The final and long awaited DLC for <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;mind-evil-within-review&sol;">The Evil Within<&sol;a><&sol;em> is finally here&comma; and it ends things on a highly gory note&period; <em>The Evil Within&colon; The Executioner<&sol;em> takes players into the role of the infamous Keeper&&num;8211&semi;also known as Box Man&&num;8211&semi;while he journeys through the horrifying nightmare that is STEM&period; His assignment is to find a number of infamous monsters from <em>The Evil Within<&sol;em> and take them out for good&period; This particular segment of <em>The Evil Within<&sol;em> takes a different approach from the other games and brings in an element of extreme violence and shady voyeurism&comma; as we see through the eyes of The Keeper as he partakes in various gruesome activities&period; Not sure how that is possible with a guy with a safe for a head&&num;8211&semi;but interestingly&comma; it works&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 822px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;assets1&period;ignimgs&period;com&sol;thumbs&sol;userUploaded&sol;2015&sol;5&sol;20&sol;the-evil-within-the-executioner-trailer-de-gamepla&lowbar;1280w&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"822" height&equals;"424" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Executioner is here&excl;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The plot for this mini venture sees The Keeper in familiar territory&comma; as he is tasked with eliminating a number of targets within the STEM nightmare in order to save his beloved daughter&period; The major change you will notice here is that player will see the Keeper’s disgusting journey through his own eyes&period; Players will traverse the game world&comma; its various challenges&comma; and even perform the combat in first person&period; An interesting means to view <em>The Evil Within<&sol;em>&comma; taking it away from the 3<sup>rd<&sol;sup> perspective&comma; and making things even more unsettling by getting players to perform grotesque actions with a front row seat&period; It works well to escalate the horror elements&comma; and finally the black bars that block the screen are gone for good&period; Also&comma; the loading screens hardly pop up in this expansion&period; Joy&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first person view also helps in delivering a more intensifying experience when it comes to combat&period; The Keeper’s main form of combat is melee based&comma; so like games such as <em>Condemned<&sol;em>&comma; players will witness all the gory details and dismemberment in close proximity&period; Progressing through the game will unlock more weapons and upgrades that will help take on the larger enemies and more troublesome boss battles later on&period; To buy and obtain upgrades&comma; The Keeper has to explore the world presented to him&comma; scavenging through wooden creates&comma; cupboards&comma; and killing off wandering enemies to obtain tokens which can be used as currency&period; The combat experience is brutal and engaging&comma; as larger enemies will fight back with their own weapons&comma; and often these encounters become electrifying duels to the death&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 824px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;static&period;trueachievements&period;com&sol;customimages&sol;040299&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"824" height&equals;"424" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">I challenge you to a duel<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The Keeper will also be allowed to test his skills and earn more rewards by taking part in multiple challenges within the game world&period; An arena type event where waves of enemies will be unleashed&comma; and the Keeper must take them out as the difficulty increases&period; The Keeper is able to brutalize fallen enemies&comma; pick up and throw NPCs into giant meat grinders&comma; rip them apart with his vast array of weaponry&comma; or simply crush them with his boot&period; It’s exploitive and over the top nature is wonderful to observe in first person&comma; and an experience that’s rarely been seen&period; Think <em>Zeno Clash<&sol;em> meets <em>F&period;E&period;A&period;R&comma;<&sol;em> or that <em>Condemned<&sol;em> was remade with more of a Gothic vibe&period; Its first person melee combat is definitely a refreshing and joyous experience compared to the likes of <em>Outlast<&sol;em> where running is the only option&period; I only wished that more games would venture into this realm&period; Even if the game does present little challenge to the most hardcore gamer&period; Only raising the stakes near to the very end&period; Slightly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There were some minor graphical glitches to report on&comma; and at times the controls felt slightly clunky when executing a finisher on a fallen enemy&period; But nothing that really broke the flow of the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;lzypJqmgNX4&sol;maxresdefault&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"829" height&equals;"481" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was nice they introduced a narrative to <em>The Executioner&comma;<&sol;em> but I would have enjoyed seeing new enemies and bosses that weren’t just reused from the previous segments&period; It&&num;8217&semi;d be nice to see this DLC  be given a little more of its own character&comma; seeing as though the gameplay worked so well to deliver something of a new experience compared to the rest of <em>The Evil Within&period;<&sol;em> But considering &lpar;by itself&rpar; its little price tag&comma; I don’t feel it would ruin the immersion or enjoyment&comma; as there&&num;8217&semi;s enough to appreciate elsewhere&period; I would have also liked to seen some stronger puzzle elements in the game&comma; something that would benefit from the first person view&comma; or even being The Keeper and using his array of brutal skills&&num;8211&semi;But the few moments avoiding trip wires bombs were nice little obstacles to overcome&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;next-gamer&period;de&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;The-Evil-Within-The-Executioner-Bethesda&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"813" height&equals;"498" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I was pleasantly surprised when completing the game and seeing the amount of unlocks and bonus given as a reward&comma; meaning that there was plenty more reason to replay the game&period; New weapons&comma; upgrades&comma; and even new challenges were open to play after finishing the game&comma; which lasted around 2 hours&period; Again&comma; this makes it well worth the asking price&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall <em>The Executioner<&sol;em> is a gripping expansion that builds on the structure of <em>The Evil Within&comma;<&sol;em> and brings in enough new ideas to make it impressively enjoyable&period; Being worth the asking price alone&comma; I would have happily paid more to see this DLC expanded&period; Its intense FPS melee combat and a strong emphasis on horror make this a worthy and brutal experience for any survival horror fan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;